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Dwight’s Doomsday Defect Prevention Device on “The Office”
On last Thursday’s episode of The Office, Dwight Schrute installed a software system that he called an “accountability booster,” aka the “doomsday device,” as it was referred to by the rest of the...
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Interview with Dr. Les Muda, the World’s First #Lean Healthcare Comedian
You might remember Dr. Les Muda, the “World’s First Lean Healthcare Comedian” (arguably the only one?) from a video back in June. He has taken a break, apparently, from his comedy club tour schedule to...
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This Commercial is Not Exactly the “Five Whys”
If you’re watching college football bowls or the NFL playoffs, it’s hard not to see this commercial from DirecTV. It’s not exactly the reverse of the “5 Whys” (as popularized in Lean and the Lean...
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A Vivid Example of Gaming the Numbers on “The Office”
NBC’s “The Office” is often a good source for clips that illustrate the opposite of Lean thinking. Last week’s episode was a continuation of the subplot where the new CEO gave Andy, the Scranton branch...
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“Kaizen!” Mention on “Parks & Rec”
Catching up on an episode of the NBC show “Parks & Recreation” from a few weeks back, Rob Lowe’s character is talking about going to a Japanese restaurant and he enthusiastically blurts out a few...
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What People Think a Lean Healthcare Consultant Does
Some of you might be familiar with the internet meme, spreading on Facebook especially, about “what people think of my profession” (as described in this Washington Post blog post). For example, see...
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Weekend Fun – Quality Related Band Names (#QualityTermBandName)
Simon Le Bon of Duran Duran I was driving the other day, listening to the 1980s music channel on XM Radio. The DJ announced a song by Duran Duran and it really sounded like “Juran Juran,” reminding me...
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Funny: The Most Interesting Lean Thinker in the World
This is too good not to share. The team at a startup called Buffer created a list of Lean Startup concepts in the guise of popular internet “memes.” If you don’t get many of the jokes —...
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94% of Problems are Really Caused by…
Since the webinar I’m doing later today for Gemba Academy (Using SPC to Make Better Management Decisions) allows me to cite the late great Dr. W. Edwards Deming when talking about variation in systems,...
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Weekend Fun: 30 Rock Mocks GE’s Manufacturing Reshoring
One of the things I love about the NBC show “30 Rock” is the way is skewers GE culture (such as its past mocking of Six Sigma – see here, here, and here). In the parallel universe of 30 Rock, GE has...
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A Video Showing Office 5S Gone Wrong
Update 4/28/12 – My “Office 5S Gone Wrong” video has gotten 42,000 views on YouTube since I created it back in 2010… Some of you who are new to the blog might not have seen it yet: You might remember...
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Weekend End: How “Toast Kaizen” Should Have Ended
I’ve probably seen the “Current Condition” portion of the fantastic “Toast Kaizen” DVD (from GBMP) more than a hundred times over the past seven years. At the end, when Bruce learns that his wife...
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Weekend Fun: GMBP’s “WIP IT”
Ah, the perks of subscribing to the GBMP’s YouTube channel… this might be basically a world premiere, breaking news video release. I *never* thought I’d see and hear Bruce “Toast” Hamilton singing...
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Updated – Weekend Fun: Political Parody Ad & Rebuttal
I don’t know about you, but I’m sick of politics. I try to be an engaged citizen… but both parties drive me nuts. The cable news networks are all beyond ridiculous. This presidential election cycle...
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Dr. Deming, Stand Up Comedian
There is a wonderful two-hour video of Dr. W. Edwards Deming addressing a university in Connecticut back in 1990. There’s so much wisdom in what he says… but some have impatience, hin this fast-paced...
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The 9th Type of #Lean Waste – Tape?
I was preparing for the Gemba Academy webinar that I’m doing next Tuesday (you can still sign up) on Stories about the Eight Types of Waste in Healthcare. I found this fun picture from about 2008 that...
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“I Don’t Always Ask Why, But When I Do, I Ask it 5 Times”
Last year, when Lean Memes were all the rage (or at least it was fun for a weekend), I had an artist create this image that is a parody of the beer commercial “Most Interesting Man in the World”...
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Song Parody: You Say You Want a Kaizen Culture
With apologies to The Beatles and Dr. John Toussaint: “Kaizen Culture” (sung to “Revolution” by The Beatles) You say you want a kaizen culture Well, you know We all want to change our work You tell...
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Parody Video: So God Made a Quality Manager
Kudos to Mike Micklewright for putting together this clever parody of the Chrysler ad that aired during the Super Bowl – Paul Harvey’s “So God Made a Farmer.” Here is “So God Made a Quality Manager”:...
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Bob Emiliani’s “Dooming Cycle”
Professor and author Bob Emiliani is a sponsor of LeanBlog.org and he’s always running new ads in the right sidebar of the blog. His recent ad parodying the “Deming Cycle” (named after Dr. W. Edwards...
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